Innovating in Retail, Aerospace & AI: Why Corporates Join Open Innovation Challenges 

Singapore now takes 4th place globally in the latest Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024, its best rank in more than 10 years, while staying at the top in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania regions (The Business Times, Sep 2024). To foster partnerships between corporates and innovative startups and SMEs across industries, Agorize has been organizing Open Innovation Challenges (OICs) in partnership with Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG). This year, some of the key sectors of focus include Retail, Aerospace, and AI through the Retail Open Innovation Challenge (ROIC), Aerospace Open Innovation Challenge (AOIC), and AI Open Innovation Challenge (AIOIC). 

Finding new solutions to industry challenges

Driven by complex industry challenges and hidden opportunities, corporates join Open Innovation Challenges to scout innovative startups and SMEs so they can co-create new solutions. Over the course of 5 months, these corporate demand drivers are guided through the application, shortlisting, clarification, and demo phases of the program they joined. Agorize provides the innovation platform and startup scouting to help each corporate identify new solutions for their industry-specific challenge statements.

Why corporates choose ROIC and AOIC to innovate

Nearly 70% of Forbes’ Top 100 companies continuously collaborate with startups, proving that corporate-startup partnerships are widely valued amongst leading organizations. Nevertheless, successfully building these partnerships from scratch can be challenging.

“Collaborating with startups is important for our challenges because we can leverage their innovative approaches and their agility to discover cutting-edge solutions for product testing, education, and engagement. Startups can bring fresh perspectives, technological expertise, and the ability to rapidly prototype and implement new ideas.” – Alice Hoffmann, Worldwide Global Travel Retail Marketing Director at Rémy Cointreau (ROIC demand driver) 

ST Engineering explains that it wants to solve challenges linked to supply chain disruptions, fuel efficiency, and green aviation. Through the Aerospace Open Innovation Challenge, they were able to reach out to promising startups and SMEs to jointly develop and trial innovative solutions that have the potential for upscaling and wider adoption. Similarly, Commune joined the Retail Open Innovation Challenge to open doors to new innovative solutions that can support the company’s goal to have more sustainable packaging solutions. 

With the OICs, corporates can craft relevant challenge statements to attract and assess potential partners that meet their requirements. For example, AOIC demand driver Airbus has been able to connect with hidden champions from related industries who are ready to tackle the challenges defined during the AOIC, and managed to engage local stakeholders focused on finding solutions and fostering the right mindset to develop technology bricks benefit the aviation industry on both local and global scales. HomesToLife is on the same track, having identified potential synergy with participants from the ROIC to develop an online end-to-end system that utilizes AI to improve their customers’ buying experience.

A unique opportunity at SWITCH 2024 

Since its launch in 2019, the Open Innovation Network (OIN), Singapore’s national gateway to open innovation, has seen hundreds of industry-leading corporates connect to startups and innovators from Singapore and beyond through OICs. This October, there’s a unique opportunity for corporate innovation professionals to learn more about Open Innovation Challenges at the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH). It’s a chance to engage with key stakeholders and Agorize and be surprised by innovative startup solutions.